Prime Minister Najib Razak's recent announcement to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee to review the electoral process in the country took everyone by surprise. It was cautiously welcomed by the Pakatan Rakyat, Bersih and Transparency International, although many were also sceptical about its true motives.
But isn’t it a little too late for Najib to start implementing reforms? Something is wrong, and as the latest events have shown, the doubters and naysayers have been proven right once again.
Since 2009 when he took over from Abdullah Badawi, Malaysians have not seen his promised reforms being carried out or showing any result, except for 1Malaysia, which in the end was also found out to be another hollow trick.
Too little, too late
In the beginning, Najib supporters slyly blamed the failure of the unifying 1Malaysia on his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin and former premier Mahathir Mohamad. 1Malaysia never had a chance, they said, when Mahathir-backed rabble-rousers like Perkasa made sure it would remain buried deep in the ground.
But the sad truth is, Najib wasn't that convinced either. He never displayed the political will or gumption to push it through.
Now, out of the blue, Najib wants Malaysians to think he has returned to the middle ground after sticking his neck to the right. It is good that most Malaysians learn their lesson fast. Most people are now wary of Najib – given his flip-flop decisions of the past and his disastrous handling of the Bersih Rally especially after he publicly reneged on his promise to offer 'any stadium’ to Bersih.
For sure, Najib has something up his sleeve. He is probably buying time until the general election, or cooling down the red-hot political temperature against him and his coalition. Or can it be, he is hoping to create his own Bersih with the PSC?
Note that till now, the Attorney General has not lifted Bersih's outlawed status. How can Najib pretend that this is a serious effort to clean up the electoral system when he continues to make illegal the biggest promoter of the idea? How come he doesn't include Bersih in the PSC? It doesn't make sense, does it?
Diam lah! Stop wasting our time
Frankly, it is a waste of time to even bother to figure out why. Remember his Diam Lah or Shaddup Facebook defacements. That is probably the only remark fitting to make to Najib now.
This latest PSC will turn out to be another great sham. And the most unforgivable part of all is that it is a malicious, time-wasting sham. It is ill-conceived, ill-thought-out and a waste of everyone's effort and energy.
Human brains were meant to think and seek out good thoughts to benefit humankind. Here to the BN's lasting shame, they are trying to use the PSC to sideline Bersih for the grand purpose of masking electoral fraud which they have every intention to ratchet up and not down.
In past, there were those who feared his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin but at this point in time, anyone is better than Najib. Malaysia has no need for such garbage leadership and we should not allow our time to be wasted by a PM who is good only at chasing his own tail.
Think about it. On Monday, he grandly announces the PSC. The mainstream goes WOW, what a liberal. It is an olive branch. He is admitting that Bersih is right!
On Tuesday, his own ministers, such as Nazri Aziz, start to shoot down Bersih and the public's expectations of the type of reforms PSC could undertake. Nazri even warned that before any thing concrete could come out from the PSC, the 13th general election may already be held. This was the prerogative of the Prime Minister, Nazri sagely reminded the people. Are Malaysians not justified in asking, what the Hell is the PSC for then? Isn't this nonensical?
Wake up, walk out now
On Wednesday, Nazri confrimed Bersih will not be part of the PSC. This then is the signal for Pakatan Rakyat. It must walk out and not lend crediblity to a panel that is meant to trick the people into falsely believing the electoral system is being cleaned up.
Read our lips, Najib Razak and the UMNO elite have no intention to clean up the system. So stop wasting time with all the analyses. The BN is only making FOOLS of the Malaysian people.
Bersih must wake up now. It must shake off the false promises made by Najib on Monday. Wake up and start formulating new plans to pressure the government into reforming the system. If that is too tough, then start formulating plans to let the Malaysians know what is happening. Create public awareness that the PSC is a humungous lie and they need to keep fighting for a clean system. The battle has only just begun!
Pakatan, also wake up. Go to the people. This is the proof you need to convince voters that Enough is enough!. Work harder, do more ceramahs and reach-outs. You won't get another opportunity as good as GE-13. If you let the people down now, they won't forgive you and they won't bother to give you another chance in GE-14.
Imagine the headlines in Utusan and Star each day, Election Commission finds phantom voters on electoral rolls and PSC has ordered an immediate rectification. Yet in reality, 2 million 'instant citizens' are being created by the National Registration Department. Speaking of which, isn't it odd that if Najib was sincere about electoral reforms, he would have stopped the Amnesty program immediately. Instead, the Amnesty deadline was extended by a week.
What happens to Bersih now? Even the alternative media will be split having to cover both PSC and Bersih. Lost and forgotten is who will check and audit that the electoral rolls are really being cleaned up, the duplications deleted, the status of the 'instant citizens' duly corrected. What should Bersih do then?
Bersih should immediately warn Malaysians that this is the latest ploy by the BN to escape cleaning up the system. There is no other explanation for refusing Bersih's entry into the PSC, no other reason to keep Bersih an outlawed organisation, no reason why its 8 simple reforms cannot be implemented immediately.
Without doubt, Pakatan must also pull out of the PSC and expose it for what it is. A diabolical plot by the BN and most shamefully, the EC too, to further defraud the Malaysian people of their rights.
